Flourishing programs in 90+ disciplines. A vibrant Christian mission. $50 million
in new campus construction. Championship athletics. 94% placement within 6 months
of graduation. There’s never been a better time to consider Hope College.

As a member of the MIAA and NCAA Division III associations, Hope College sponsors
22 varsity sports for men and women. The college is home to the 2014 NCAA Division
III National Championship women’s volleyball team.

Celebrating Celebrations Past

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The college’s anniversary celebrations themselves have a history, with activities
through the years including three-hour historical pageants, parades, concerts, lectures
and the first-ever Community Day picnic.

1890

The 25th-anniversary celebration in June 1890 (the beginning of the anniversary year)
seemed to be heading for disaster.

It didn’t start out that way. Beloved founding President Philip Phelps Jr. was returning
for the event, during which the alumni would be presenting the college with a portrait
they’d commissioned of him. The festivities were scheduled to coincide with Commencement,
itself a magnificent celebration.

Unfortunately, most of the senior class boycotted the graduation ceremony.

The seniors were upset about the schedule. Commencement in those days was held on
a Wednesday, and in recent years had taken place in the evening. To accommodate a
banquet in Phelps’s honor, however, the Council of the college (the equivalent of
today’s Board of Trustees) had returned Commencement to the morning, which was the
time frame specified for the annual ceremony despite actual practice.

Almost no one backed down. The events took place as planned, with only one of the
seven members of the Class of 1890 present for the graduation ceremony. That might
well have produced a rather gloomy result, but the opposite happened. Those gathered
recognized the absurdity of the situation, and simply forged ahead and enjoyed their
time together.

And the portrait? It’s still a part of Hope, hanging in the Presidents’ Room in Graves
Hall.

1916

By the time of the semi-centennial in June 1916, the college had opted to celebrate
at the end of the anniversary year instead of the beginning. The 50th featured activities
across more than a week in conjunction with Commencement, including a three-and-a-half
hour (!) outdoor pageant presented by students that retold the history of the community
and Hope (some 6,000 attended), and a massive parade that hosted alumni whose graduation
years reached back to the debut Class of 1866.

News reports state that “hundreds upon hundreds” watched the parade, with spectators
lining “every space” along the route, which traveled from the central campus west
around the far side of Centennial Park and back. Holland’s mayor offered a welcome
as the alumni passed City Hall, and as recalled years later in the book A Century of Hope by former president Wynand Wichers (Class of 1909), who was a faculty member at the
time, “Teachers and pupils of the public schools formed ranks on three sides of Centennial
Park to greet the procession.”

It was a special point of pride that the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America
was meeting in Holland for the first time, in conjunction with the celebration. Even
better, the Rev. Peter Moerdyke (Class of 1866), a member of the college’s first graduating
class, was elected General Synod president during the meeting.

1926

The 1916 pageant was such a success that the tradition continued during three more
anniversary celebrations (1926, 1936 and 1941). The June 1926 pageant itself marked
three anniversaries: the sesquicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the Dutch in Michigan and the college’s 60th
(the student portraying Albertus C. Van Raalte, founder of Holland and co-founder
of Hope, wore Van Raalte’s own silk hat.) As in 1916, the RCA’s General Synod met
in Holland during the same month.

1941

The 75th anniversary celebration in June 1941 included the conferral of honorary degrees
on four recipients, all of course notable but one especially so: Her Royal Highness
Princess Juliana of the Netherlands. The princess and her husband, Prince Bernhard,
were in exile from their homeland, which had been occupied by Nazi Germany the year
before, and during an interview she expressed confidence that her nation would one
day be free.

The ceremony honoring the princess preceded the main celebration by a week, taking
place during the meeting of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, held
on campus that year. The celebration itself ran five days, and among those who attended
was Frances F.C. Phelps (Class of 1882) Otte, daughter of the college’s first president
and one of Hope’s first two female graduates. In addition to the student historical
pageant, highlights included the placing of the cornerstone for a new science building,
today’s Lubbers Hall.

1966

The college’s 100th-anniversary celebration robustly spanned more than a year. It
began with recognition of the centennial during the 1965 Commencement, continued during
Homecoming ’65 (which featured the dedication of the anchor in front of Graves Hall)
and ran in earnest during Homecoming in October 1966. Multiple concerts and lectures
were presented across the five-day festival, among them a keynote address by Michigan
Governor George Romney. Activity highlights included a community ox roast envisioned
by Holland Mayor Nelson Bosman as a way of celebrating the relationship between the
college and city that has continued every year since, known for the past several years
as Community Day (celebrating its 50th in September).

Hope unveiled its “Centennial Decade Master Plan” as part of the celebration, a vision
for the future that ultimately realized the construction of the DeWitt Student and
Cultural Center, and the start of funding for the Peale Science Center (today part
of the A. Paul Schaap Science Center), the Wynand Wichers Addition to Nykerk Hall
of Music and two residence halls.

The commemoration also included publication of the book A Century of Hope by former president Wynand Wichers (Class of 1909). Wichers had himself lived much
of the college story, including not only as president but as a student, faculty member
and alumnus.

1991

The college marked its 125th anniversary simply, with the publication of an eponymous
pictorial volume. The book featured photographs taken by John de Visser across the
1990–91 school year, with additional content including a concise chronology of Hope
as well as a 32-page anniversary photographic retrospective compiled by Larry Wagenaar
’87, archivist of the Joint Archives of Holland.